Playing for respect

If there was any better sight than India's cricketers celebrating victory over Australia yesterday, it was that of their supporters doing the same.

- Emma John

For several hours, the nerves of the 45,000 spectators in Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium - most wearing Indian blue - had jangled in sympathy. As the home team booked themselves into Sunday’s Women’s Cricket World Cup final, the TV cameras picked out the men and women in the stands caught up in the flood of delight and relief. It was more than a moment of triumph - it was a vision of solidarity.

But let’s leave the stands, now, and head to the city streets of Indore, the largest city in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It’s here that a pair of Australia players were sexually harassed as they walked from their hotel to a nearby cafe last week. They reported the incident, there was an immediate investigation, and a man was shortly arrested: a swift, proactive piece of police work. Which begged the question: how much interest would the authorities have shown if it had happened to anyone other than two high-profile, foreign athletes?